Compare the opening sections of "Brighton Rock" and "Othello". What Impressions of time/place, character and attitudes are conveyed?

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Compare the opening sections of the Brighton Rock and Othello. What Impressions of time/place, character and attitudes are conveyed?

For the first sections of both literatures, the authors William Shakespeare and Graham Greene, both introduce the setting, the characters and the attitudes in aim to set the scenery and themes that will be displayed throughout the book or performance. Brighton Rock and Othello contrast mainly through the themes of wealth and violence. However, the display of class division reveals similarities between the two literatures.  

The settings for Brighton Rock and Othello only have one similarity; both cities obtain class division. However, both upper and lower classes dominate Brighton, whereas in Othello, as the upper class uses the lower class to represent their wealth, we are given the impression that the upper class dominates Venice.

Venice in the 16th century was seen to English citizens as powerful and wealthy due to being ‘a major trading rival’, which also gives the impression that the setting would be ‘assume(d) (as) a great local interest’ to the English audience. This impression of wealth and power is also conveyed through the first act, as all of the characters introduced, which are associated with Venice, are maintained in the upper class. This includes the Duke of Venice, Cassio; ‘a great arithmetician’, Brabantio; a Venetian Senator and Othello; ‘an honorable murderer’.

The setting of Brighton in ‘the 1930’s, was presented (as) the face of an attractive seaside resort’, where ‘50,000 visitors’ filled the city daily, which is established to the readers by the character Hale. However, it was also known in the 1930’s that there were two sides of Brighton, the other side lied  ‘the tracts of shoddily built houses, dreary shopping areas and desolate industrial suburbs’. The first section of Brighton Rock, displays both sides of Brighton creating the idea of chaos in the city. Yet, as Greene focuses more on the common and lower class side of Brighton, distinguishing places like the public bar and using lower class characters, such as the Mob and Ida; a rowdy woman, it is easy to recognize the contrast from this to the rich upper class characters represented for the setting of Venice.

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Another impression conveyed that creates contrast between both cities is sophistication. In Brighton Rock, the first chapter reveals the mob lifestyle and murder, which gives the impression to the readers that violence is a major theme, as it is only the very first chapter yet a murder has already taken, place and the main character is a head of a mob. This semantic field of violence adds to Greene focusing more on the ‘shabbiness’ of Brighton. However, in Othello, there is only verbal abuse between the characters and when Brabantio, Roderigo and Iago ‘draw’ ‘their bright swords’, Othello demands to ‘keep ...

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